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MBP Strange Wireless

W

Wingnut330

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
530
0
Central Ohio - USA
Hello all,

I have recently started having issues with the wireless connectivity of my MBP and I'm curious what you folks think...

A couple of months ago I noticed that my wireless connection would drop to one or 2 bars on my couch in my great room - about 25 feet away form my Time Capsule. Even though I had been using the MBP in this room for a year or so, I thought maybe there was some kind of new interference. So, I bought a Airport Base Station and plugged it into a wall in my great room - about 8 feet from where I am right now. As I type this my range goes from 2 bars to full bars and is now at 3 bars. I can't figure out why it is happening. Wait, back to full bars now.

Anyway, another oddity is that when my machine does a Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule over my wireless network my reception (regardless of where I am in the house) drops to 2 bars for the duration of my backup.

Any ideas?
 
My early 08 did the same thing, Apple had to replace the wifi/bluetooth board and it was fixed.
 
My unibody MacBook Pro was getting really spotty wireless the first few days I had it. Played around with my base station configs, changed the multicast rate to 5.5Mbps and Wireless Security to WPA2 personal and it seemed to speed things up quite a bit.

Though, if you do have a hardware problem, my suggestion won't help...but just incase it isn't, the changes did help.
 
Wingnut330 said:
Was it something they could do in the Apple Store or was it sent away?
Click to expand...

It was sent away, but I live 2hr from the store. I just called Applecare. I tried the wireless with the computer sitting 2ft from the router with 3/2 bars it constantly changed connection and sometimes dropped entirely. If you do a little digging on google you'll find the MacBook Pro has been plagued with wireless issues since it's inception in 2006.
 
drewsof07 said:
My early 08 did the same thing, Apple had to replace the wifi/bluetooth board and it was fixed.
Click to expand...

drewsof07 said:
It was sent away, but I live 2hr from the store. I just called Applecare. I tried the wireless with the computer sitting 2ft from the router with 3/2 bars it constantly changed connection and sometimes dropped entirely. If you do a little digging on google you'll find the MacBook Pro has been plagued with wireless issues since it's inception in 2006.
Click to expand...

Yea - I noticed that when I looked a bit. I was hoping for a quick solution, but based on what you are saying that doesn't sound possible. I'm gonna setup an appointment with the Genius Bar and see what happens.

I really don't want to ship it away and lose it for a week or so.
 
Wingnut330 said:
Yea - I noticed that when I looked a bit. I was hoping for a quick solution, but based on what you are saying that doesn't sound possible. I'm gonna setup an appointment with the Genius Bar and see what happens.

I really don't want to ship it away and lose it for a week or so.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are a couple geniuses at Easton who are very "by the book" and won't accept a repair unless it's obviously not working and won't just trust your word. Hopefully that won't happen ;) There is one though, I don't remember his name but he looks hispanic, who's always very helpful with trusting me about intermittent issues, especially after I tell him how far I drove just for this one problem. I'm from Chillicothe/Jackson area if you know where that is, so quite a trek for me.
 
mine too

but, it has only started happening in the past few days. Since the last SW upgrade and safari 4 beta install.

What happens to me is, the BARS are full, but the wireless throughput just drops to ZERO for a few seconds, maybe 10 seconds and then comes BACK up. I don't understand the peaks and valleys in the throughput?

Is there some way one can test this, other than the traditional online "test my speed" tests.

When I run the speakeasy.net test, I ultimatly get my peak 5.5MB/s, but it ranges from 14kps, to 200kps, to 5000kps, to 125kps, etc.

What can one do?
 
Sometimes i get similar behavior with the peaks and valleys on my unibody 15inch.
 
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